in all the discussions, gave his ardent support to every measure intended to strengthen the new order of things. He had the highest confidence in President Washington and gave his administration a hearty support. He remained a member of the legislature until the spring of 1791, when he refused positively to accept another election.

In 1795 party feeling was very high, intensified by the indignation aroused by the recent treaty with Great Britain, negotiated by John Jay, and it became doubtful whether the Federalist candidate could be elected to the legislature. Mr. Marshall was among the few leading men of Virginia who defended the treaty. On the morning of the election of 1795, while he was engaged in the trial of an important case in court, his friends, without his knowledge, suddenly opened a poll for him, and he was triumphantly elected, notwithstanding there was a strong anti-Federalist majority in the county.

In 1797 the actions of Mr. Monroe, minister to France, satisfied the administration he could not succeed in negotiating a treaty with that country, and President Adams determined to send a new commission. On May 31 he appointed John Marshall, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Francis Dana as such commission. Mr. Dana declined and Elbridge Gerry was substituted. On leaving Richmond Mr. Marshall was attended for several miles by a large cavalcade of his fellow-citizens. When the members of the commission arrived at Paris the French directory refused to receive them, unless an apology were made for some of the passages in the address of President Adams to Congress. This, of course, was promptly and indignantly refused by the American envoys. Talleyrand was the French minister of foreign affairs, and sent an envoy to the Americans offering to smooth the way for a treaty if a certain sum of money were paid to Talleyrand personally and a large loan made to the French directory. To have made such a loan would have been a violation of the neutral position the country had taken as between France and England. It was this offer of Talleyrand that gave Mr. Pinckney the occasion to declare the United States would give "millions for defense but not one cent for tribute," a saying that stirred every American heart.

The matter of a treaty hung for weeks, the Americans refusing to either apologize for the President's speech, give the doucer to Talleyrand or to make a loan to the French directory. Worn out with the delay and the subterfuges of the French minister, the American envoys determined to address Talleyrand a letter, laying before him in explicit terms the object of their mission, and if the French government still refused to open negotiations to demand their passports and letters of safe conduct. The drafting of this letter to Talleyrand was given to Mr. Marshall, and it has ever been regarded as a model state paper.

Talleyrand complained that although the directory had not given. them an audience they might have called upon him personally. Mr.

Marshall replied that it was not a matter of any concern whether they had an interview with the directory or not; that the Americans were perfectly indifferent on the subject. The commissioners then demanded their passports and letters of safe conduct. Talleyrand replied that as they had never been officially received they were not entitled to letters of safe conduct, and the only way for them to secure passports was to apply to the American consul as citizens of the United States. Mr. Marshall sharply told the French minister that the conduct of the French government was in violation of the laws and customs of civilized nations. Talleyrand again replied that the Americans were not in the character of foreign ministers, as they had not been officially received. To this Mr. Marshall spiritedly replied, saying that the ignorance of M. Talleyrand of the laws of nations was the only excuse he could offer for such a statement; that he derived his character of foreign minister not from M. Talleyrand nor from the French directory but from the United States, and that the United States only could deprive him of that character. This sharp reply to the French minister brought the passports and letters of safe conduct.

On his return to this country Mr. Marshall was received by great demonstrations on the part of the citizens, the story of Talleyrand's attempt to extort money having been published, awakening the widest indignation. Both houses of Congress united in giving him a public dinner. At this time President Adams offered him a seat on the Supreme Bench, but it was declined. In 1798 he was an unwilling candidate for Congress, but having been elected he took his seat at the opening of the session in December of 1799. It was not long until upon all questions involving the powers of the government, or the scope of the Constitution, he became a recognized authority. Of his powers as a logical and convincing debater many incidents occurred. He was, at one time, defending the action of the President on a certain matter. Albert Gallatin had been chosen by the opposition to reply to him, and for some time during the speech of Mr. Marshall took copious notes. As Mr. Marshall proceeded with his argument Mr. Gallatin ceased taking notes, and left his seat, going into the lobby. A fellow-citizen approached him and inquired if he did not intend to reply. He was curtly told that Mr. Marshall's arguments were unanswerable and no one could reply to them.

Congress adjourned on May 14, 1800. The day before the adjournment Mr. Marshall resigned his seat to take a place in the cabinet of President Adams, being the first instance of a member of Congress being appointed to a cabinet position. He had first been offered the war portfolio, but had declined it. He was nominated as Secretary of State on May 12 and was promptly confirmed the next day, but he did not actively assume the duties of the office until June 6. The troubles in Europe still continued to harass the United States, but as Secretary

of State, Mr. Marshall stood firm, notifying England and France that the United States were not answerable to them for such treaties as the President might see fit to negotiate with either of them; that the United States were an independent nation and must be treated as such. He remained as Secretary of State.until the day after the inauguration of President Jefferson, although he had been nominated, confirmed and commissioned as Chief Justice of the United States on the preceding January 31 and had actually taken his seat on the bench February 4. A story has found its way into some histories that at midnight on March 3, 1801, Levi Lincoln, carrying in his hand the watch of Mr. Jefferson, entered the office of the Secretary of State and found him busy signing commissions, and pointing to the watch in his hand, notified Mr. Marshall he was no longer Secretary of State. The facts are that Mr. Marshall continued to act as Secretary of State until March 5, at the request of Mr. Jefferson.

While he was at the head of the State Department a new commission, consisting of Oliver Ellsworth, William Vans Murray and W. R. Davie, was sent to France. A treaty was signed September 30, 1800. It released forever the United States from the obligations of the treaty of alliance of 1778. The treaty was something of a disappointment in some of its details, but it relieved the country for the time being of all apprehension of war.

The appointment of Mr. Marshall as Chief Justice marks an epoch in the history of the country. The government was still in its trying-out period. Many questions under the Constitution as to the rights of the people and of the states and of the powers of the general government remained unsettled, and the Supreme Court as the final arbiter was to make momentous decisions. The opinions of Chief Justice Marshall, while on the bench, and the decisions of the court under him have always been regarded as wise and fortunate for the country. No judge or lawyer ever enjoyed a greater reputation as a constitutional jurist than Mr. Marshall.

Mr. Marshall served as Chief Justice until his death, July 6, 1835. While still on the bench of the Supreme Court he served as a member of the Virginia Convention called in 1829 to revise the constitution of that state. He also wrote a voluminous life of General Washington. His health began to fail in 1835 and he went to Philadelphia for medical treatment and died in that city.

JAMES MADISON

JA

AMES MADISON-Secretary of State from May 2, 1801, to March 3, 1809. Born at Port Conway, Virginia, March 16, 1751. Son of James and Nelly (Conway) Madison. Educated at Princeton College. Married, in October, 1794, Mrs. Dolly Todd. Died June 29, 1836, at Montpelier, Virginia.

1774-Member of the Virginia Committee of Safety.

1776-Delegate to Virginia Convention.

1777-Member of the Virginia Legislature.
1778-Member of the Governor's Council.
1780-Member of the Continental Congress.

1784-Member of the Virginia Assembly.

1787-Member of the Continental Congress.

1787-Member of the Constitutional Convention.

1788-Member of the Virginia Convention on the Constitution.
1789-Member of the national House of Representatives.

1799-Member of the Virginia Legislature.

1801-Secretary of State.

1809-President of the United States.

1813-President of the United States.

The ancestors of James Madison were not among the wealthy planters of Virginia, but were in independent and comfortable circumstances. His mother was on a visit to her parents, residing at Port Conway, when James was born. The family residence was in King and Queen county, and it was there young James began his school life. He was first sent to a school taught by a Scotch clergyman, and then for some years was under the care of a private tutor until fitted to enter college. From some cause not known he chose Princeton College, in New Jersey, instead of William and Mary, then the great educational institution of Virginia. He entered Princeton in 1769, at the age of eighteen years. He shortened his college term by taking a two years' course in one, but he remained at the college for another year for the purpose of studying Hebrew, his mind being inclined toward the ministry as a profession. Later he studied law.

He early became an enthusiastic advocate of the rights of the colonies as against the king and Parliament, and in 1774 became a member of the famous Virginia Committee of Safety. Two years later he was sent as a delegate to the Virginia Convention-the convention which adopted resolutions instructing the Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence. In that convention he took a prominent part and was a member of the committee appointed to frame a Bill of Rights. In the committee and in the convention he took strong grounds in favor of absolute freedom in religion, opposing the doctrine of mere toleration. The article in the Bill of Rights on this subject that was finally adopted was the work of Mr. Madison.

He was a member of the first state assembly under the new constitution, but was defeated for a second term because he refused to adopt the practice then universally followed of treating the voters with liquor. He set himself resolutely against this practice as demoralizing and destructive of the real spirit of liberty. In 1778 he was elected by the assembly a member of the Governor's Council, a position of dignity, if not of much importance.

In 1780 he was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress. In that body he at once became prominent and influential, serving on

many of the most important committees. Of that Congress, Hamilton, Wilson, Ellsworth and Madison were the strong men and were usually found working together on all important matters. In the debates Mr. Madison displayed a close and intimate knowledge of English constitutional law and its application to the colonies setting up a new government. He was chairman of the committee appointed to draft the instructions for Mr. Jay, just appointed minister to Spain, and insisted the instructions should require Mr. Jay to contend for the free navigation of the Mississippi River.

Under the law of Virginia, as it then stood, a delegate to the Continental Congress could not serve two consecutive terms, so Mr. Madison was left off the delegation elected in 1784, but was immediately chosen to represent his county in the Virginia Assembly. By this time he had come to be recognized as one of the political leaders of the state. He had early recognized the weakness of the Confederation in not giving power enough to Congress, and in the assembly he used every effort to strengthen the hands of Congress.

He prepared the resolution sent out by the assembly to the other states inviting them to send delegates to a meeting to be held at Annapolis to take into consideration the commercial interests of the whole country, and was himself appointed one of the Virigina delegates to that meeting. The meeting was held in September, 1786, but failed of accomplishing anything more than sending an address to the people of the whole country, prepared by Alexander Hamilton, urging that commissioners be appointed in each state to a future meeting to be held in Philadelphia. This was the convention which framed the Constitution, and Mr. Madison was one of the Virginia delegates.

In the legislature he reduced the old colonial statutes to a body of laws suited to the changed conditions. He contended, but without success, for the faith of treaties and the payment of the debts as provided for in the treaty of peace with Great Britain. That treaty provided there should be no legal impediment placed in the way of collecting debts incurred prior to the outbreak of the war in 1775 on either side. The Virginia Legislature notified Congress it would disregard that provision of the treaty. Mr. Madison held the state should not take such action, but the whole matter be left to Congress; he contended that Congress was the party to the treaty and not the state, which had surrendered its treaty-making power to the Congress.

In 1787 he was again sent to the Continental Congress. In this Congress he was ever foremost in demanding the exercise of the strongest power on the part of Congress. His ideal was still the union before the states; the whole before the parts. He saw the weakness of the government under the Articles of Confederation, and was ready to advocate a stronger union, with greater power granted to the federal government.